Building a website for an important community partner
Working with Samuel Gompers Elementary and Middle School on their website, our group was tasked with updating the website and condensing the information in an effort to increase enrollment. Gompers is one of the leading K-8 schools in the Philadelphia area. They specialize in various programs that empower the students to become leaders in and out of the classroom. The school also offers a specialization for students who have disabilities to help them grow as they approach their adolescent years.
Engaging prospective parents and students
As enrollment numbers decreased due to the competitive school market in Philadelphia and COVID, Gompers needed to use all their resources to engage prospective parents and students. Updating their website was a crucial step because it is often the first thing a parent looks at when searching for schools. We looked at different K-8 schools in Philadelphia to see what was and wasn’t working for engagement to websites. We came to the conclusion that our team would update, organize and semi-redesign the website to be more attractive and accessible for prospective students to search through.
Editing the website
Each week, the group met with the computer teacher at Gompers, Ms. Rivera, and the goal for us was to complete small tasks with each meeting. In the end, these small tasks came together to create a website that was more updated, cohesive, and showed Gompers in a much better light. Before our team took on this project, the information on the website was outdated and unorganized. The team condensed this information by adding new tabs on the navigation bar. The main pages within the website include “Policies,” “Students & Parents,” “Faculty and Staff,” “Calendar,” and “About Us.” Once these tabs were put into place, the team worked with Ms. Rivera to gather documents for the website that were informative for parents and students and were up to date. The “Spotlight” column was also condensed as a lot of the information within the section was irrelevant or redundant to the page. The final and updated website now shows all the great things Gompers has to offer and is much more appealing to parents who are searching for elementary schools for their children.
Bringing Gompers to Life
Giving support to Gompers as Saint Joseph's students was very rewarding and inspiring. Seeing the students in the hallways each week that we edited the website brought inspiration to our minds and smiles on our faces. Engaging in the school culture gave us great insight into the content to display on the site. Helping our neighbors with this task has been a pleasure and we hope to work with Gompers again in the future.
